Not everything but a lot starts with listening

Niet alles maar veel begint bij luisteren

03.10.2023

NINOVE - "Marginal triangle," "wing-west for the extreme right," "cultural breakdown strip against the language border. For those who don't live there, it's easy to brush off the Dender region. But how do the residents themselves actually see it?

Author Dominique Willaert wandered around Ninove, Aalst, Denderleeuw, Zottegem, Herzele and other southeastern Flemish spots for four months. It yielded a pearl necklace of stories. About the decline of the factories, the demolition of social housing and the time when public housing ran like clockwork. But also about a former member of parliament who tumbled to the CPAS early in the morning and filled his suitcase with the best meat from the food bank ("heard it from my plumber himself!"), Facebook posts that go viral and the Flemish House in Ninove. And finally, also about how to deal with groups that vote Vlaams Belang. Spoiler alert: the author calls for dialogue.